The Milky WayHawaii, US

The Milky Way is our home galaxy. It contains billions of stars, of which our Sun is just one. The Milky Way is shaped like a large disk, with a bulge at the middle that contains a giant black hole. Our Sun, and the planets that orbit it including Earth, are about two-thirds away from the center of this galactic disk. From this vantage point, the combined light from the multitude of other stars in our Galaxy produce a milky path, which may be how the name originated. The dark patches are due to interstellar dust that obscures the view to the center of the Galaxy in visible light, making it necessary to use telescopes sensitive to other wavelengths to study the Galactic center. The Milky Way is just one of billions of known galaxies, each containing their own multitude of pinpricks of starlight.